How to Simplify Life Before the Holidays: 12 Ways to Make Room for What Matters
Somewhere between bringing out the Christmas decorations and remembering another school event, the holidays can start feeling like a second job.
There are gifts to buy, meals to plan, things to bake, and apparently seventeen different occasions that require a festive outfit. Meanwhile, the laundry is still there. Dinner still needs to happen. And if you have animals, they have absolutely no interest in your holiday schedule.
I love this time of year. The homemade gifts, the twinkle lights, the excuse to bake something with cinnamon in it. But I also want to enjoy it without arriving at Christmas completely worn out.
If you’re wondering how to simplify life before the holidays, start with the everyday things that keep piling up. A little less clutter, a few fewer commitments, and an easier dinner plan can make a bigger difference than another trip to the store.
Here are 12 practical ways to give yourself some breathing room before the holiday rush.
1. Decide what you actually want from this season
Before you fill the calendar, think about what you’re looking forward to.
Is it baking with your kids? Having family over? Taking an evening drive to look at Christmas lights? Staying home in pajamas with a movie and something warm to drink?
Pick three things you really want to make time for. Ask your family for their favorites, too. Their answers might surprise you.
Sometimes we put a whole lot of work into something nobody is particularly attached to, while the simple little tradition is the one everyone remembers.
Write those favorites down. Let them help you decide where your time and money go.
2. Give the calendar a little breathing room
School activities, holiday parties, community events, volunteer opportunities—there is plenty to do this time of year.
But every open square on the calendar does not need filling.
Add the things you already know about, including appointments and school deadlines. Then protect a few evenings or weekend afternoons at home.
That time will come in handy when somebody gets sick, you need to finish wrapping gifts, or you simply want a quiet evening.
And when another invitation arrives, “Thank you for thinking of us, but we can’t make it this time” is a perfectly good response.
3. Clear the spots that make everyday life harder
You do not need to declutter your entire house before Thanksgiving.
Please don’t empty every closet onto the floor and accidentally give yourself a new problem.
Start with the places you use constantly: the kitchen counter, entryway, dining table, or that chair where everything seems to land.
Set a timer for 15 minutes. Put things away, toss obvious trash, and choose a few things to donate.
A clear place to set down groceries or wrap a gift is useful. Getting the donations out of the house is useful, too. Otherwise, they tend to become a bag you move from room to room until February.
4. Make a boring dinner list
There will be enough special meals during the holidays. Tuesday dinner can be ordinary.
Write down five to seven easy meals your family actually eats. Soup and bread, tacos, baked potatoes, eggs and toast, pasta, or a sheet-pan dinner all count.
Keep the ingredients for a few of them on hand and repeat as needed.
If you’re already cooking something that freezes well, make an extra portion when it fits your time and budget. Having dinner ready on a busy evening feels like someone did you a favor.
That someone was you, a few weeks earlier. Very thoughtful.
5. Look through the pantry before buying more
Before holiday baking supplies and extra groceries come home, see what’s already there.
Check the pantry, refrigerator, and freezer. Make a few meals around food that needs using, and jot down what you’re missing for the recipes you plan to make.
This is also a good time to check your spices and baking basics. Finding out you’re almost out of cinnamon halfway through a recipe is annoying any time of year.
You may have more on hand than you thought—and a little more room once you use it.
6. Make one holiday list you can actually find
A gift idea in your phone. A grocery list on the counter. A school reminder buried in your email.
It gets messy quickly.
Choose one main place for your holiday planning, whether that’s a notebook, a planner, or a note on your phone. Keep gift ideas, spending, important dates, and things to make together.
For gifts, record who the gift is for, what you’ve chosen, how much you spent, and whether it has arrived.
That last part matters. A gift tucked into a very clever hiding place can become a surprise for you, too.
7. Set gift limits before you start shopping
Decide what you can comfortably spend before the sales and gift guides start making everything look irresistible.
You can set a total budget, an amount per person, or agree with family to simplify an exchange. Drawing names or buying only for the children may work well, as long as everyone agrees ahead of time.
Homemade gifts can be lovely, but count the supplies and the time involved. A simple batch of something you already enjoy making is often more manageable than learning five new crafts in December.
Choose gifts you’re happy to give and can reasonably afford. Then let yourself be done.
8. Pull out the decorations before buying anything
It’s easy to fall in love with a new holiday display before you remember what’s in your own bins.
Take a look first. Check the lights, find the ornaments you love, and see what still works for your home.
Decorate the places you’ll enjoy most. Maybe that’s the tree, the front door, and a little greenery on the kitchen windowsill.
You don’t have to decorate every room. And you don’t have to use every decoration you own just because it came out of the attic.
Leave yourself room to set down a coffee cup.
9. Get the small household jobs out of the way
Think about the ordinary things that become irritating when life gets busy.
Refill the hand soap. Check the wrapping tape. Put extra toilet paper in the bathroom. Find the serving dish you’ll need before you’re standing there with hot food and nowhere to put it.
If you have a homestead, check feed and everyday animal supplies, too. Build those errands into a regular trip when you can.
You’re simply taking care of a few predictable needs while you have a moment.
10. Make your phone a little quieter
The holiday season brings plenty of noise without a phone announcing another sale every twenty minutes.
Unsubscribe from store emails you never wanted. Turn off shopping notifications that tempt you to browse. Mute accounts that leave you feeling behind.
I enjoy finding ideas online, but there comes a point when looking at everyone else’s Christmas starts taking time away from my own.
Save the recipe or craft you genuinely want to try, then give yourself a chance to actually make it.
11. Choose one tradition to make easier
Think about the holiday task you’re already dreading.
Could you bake two kinds of cookies instead of six? Ask everyone to bring a dish? Use gift bags? Skip the matching outfits? Move a gathering to a weekend that works better?
A tradition can change with your family, your budget, and your energy.
If something takes days of work and leaves you too tired to enjoy the occasion, it deserves another look.
Keep the parts people love. Make the rest easier.
12. Leave a few things off the list entirely
This might be the hardest part.
Once you start planning, it’s tempting to turn simplifying into another ambitious project. Suddenly, you’re organizing the pantry, making freezer meals, crafting gifts, and cleaning every baseboard.
Pick two or three ideas from this list that would make the biggest difference in your house. Start there.
Maybe you need an easier dinner routine and fewer outings. Maybe you need to finish gift shopping early. Maybe you need to stop agreeing to things while silently wondering how you’ll manage them.
You know where the pressure is building.
A simple place to start this week
If you’re already feeling overwhelmed, keep your first steps small:
- Clear one surface you use every day.
- Choose five easy dinners.
- Write down your three favorite holiday activities.
- Put known events on one calendar.
- Decide on a gift budget.
- Cross off one thing you don’t need to do.
That is plenty for a start.
I want a holiday season with time to sit beside the tree after the house gets quiet. Time to bake something because it sounds good. Time to enjoy the people who are here.
Some of that starts with putting fewer things on the list now.
What’s one thing you’re making easier—or skipping altogether—this holiday season? Tell me in the comments. Someone else may need that idea, too!
Save this post to Pinterest so you can come back to it when the holiday calendar starts filling up.
